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Retaining the brightest and best within the housing sector
Dolphin Living has introduced a tenant loan deposit scheme for its own employees as one of several measures aimed at retaining staff. Olivia Harris explains
There remains much in the news on the housing crisis and whether it will be possible to build enough new homes in the right place at the right cost.
The focus continues to be on the provision of new affordable homes, with little in the national news about the costs and constraints of looking after existing stock.
Affordable housing providers are considered key to delivering significant amounts of the new supply needed, as well as looking after their existing housing stock, while the impact of the 1% rent cut continues to bite.
To do this we need to think creatively and act proactively. Within this context it is vital that we do not neglect one of our most valuable resources – our staff.
Affordable housing providers have the dual challenge of not only seeking to provide housing services to those in need of it, but also working to ensure that rising housing costs do not prevent them from being able to able to attract, retain and develop talented and hardworking individuals.
“It is vital that we do not neglect one of our most valuable resources – our staff.”
While this challenge is perhaps no more or less acute than in other sectors, our sector knowledge does put an additional burden on us, beyond the need to invest in our staff, and to continue to press for action to address some of the cost pressures faced by tenants and employees on low to medium earnings.
Most recently this has been highlighted by the biggest increase in rail fares since 2013. Now it is not only the issue of workers on low to middle incomes being priced out of the area close to where they work, but also the impact of the increasing costs of travel for those commuting.
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The prominence of housing in the news can be used to our advantage and we need to do all we can to promote a positive image of housing as a source of social good, a key economic driver and a desirable sector to work in.
While the sector plays its part through the delivery of new homes, there are other steps that we, as employers, can take to continue to provide an excellent service to our customers including investing in our staff.
“We need to offer something more to make housing an attractive career prospect.”
How we achieve this cannot be solely through offering increased salaries (if indeed we can afford to) – we need to offer something more to make housing an attractive career prospect. Thankfully there are many things we can do where the cost to our organisations is low compared to the benefit it offers our staff and the services we provide.
It is for this reason that Dolphin Living, like many other employers in London, has gone beyond traditional retention benefits such as season ticket loans and introduced a tenant deposit loan scheme.
The scheme addresses the challenge many employees face, especially those on low to middle incomes when renting for the first time. We also offer confidential housing advice to those who ask for it.
By investing in our employees through effective training we are also able to improve the services we offer to tenants.
Furthermore, training will enable those employees who are ambitious to fulfil their ambition with us, rather than seeking growth elsewhere, keeping our staff turnover low and our recruitment costs down.
This is all the more critical for smaller organisations where the loss of a single member of staff has a greater proportional impact, and recruiting both the right skills set and personality can be almost impossible, given the need to cover a wide range of responsibilities.
“We are able to offer training bespoke to the needs of the individual.”
Offering ongoing training to fill in any gaps when recruiting enables us to recruit for personality and ability, while giving employees considerable scope for growth and development.
As a small organisation Dolphin Living is unable to match the training and career progression offered by large corporate companies; what we are able to offer is training bespoke to the needs of the individual.
Those needs encompass the cost and time of training as well as the type of training.
By identifying skills gaps within the organisation we can provide training to meet both the needs of the employee and benefit our business.
Offering both training and development, as well as assistance with housing support and travel costs, can help us attract and retain staff, and in doing so improve the services we offer.
However there is clearly no single solution and we need to continue to listen to our staff and take feedback, so that we continue to improve.
Through ensuring that our staff feel valued and remain committed to delivering new affordable homes and to looking after those homes we already own, we can fulfil our objective to provide the best services possible for our customers in spite of the many other challenges facing our sector.
Olivia Harris, chief executive, Dolphin Living
